New York Yankees

Phil Hughes said that he had a few sleepless nights after the worst start of his professional career, a nightmarish outing last time out against the Mariners in which he surrendered seven runs and was not able to escape the first inning. “You lay in bed and you think about things; what could have gone differently for you and what you could have done better,” Hughes said. “It’s tough. It’s tough any way you slice it. I’m looking forward to taking the ball [tonight] and hopefully getting back on a good streak.” Hughes said that he found in his bullpen that he was on the side of the ball a little bit, which was causing his fastball to run back over the middle of the plate. Hughes tends to pitch up in the zone anyway – he’s a fly ball pitcher and that lends itself to home runs at times – so he really must hit the corners to be effective. “It’s all fastball command, really,” Hughes said. “The days that I’ve had good command of my fastball, I’ve been able to work everything off that. Those have been the good ones. The bad ones, I’m falling behind and trying to figure something out. “When the fastball is there and I’m locating it, I have a good chance to be good that day. If not, I think I need to do a better job of recognizing that earlier and throwing more off-speed pitches to try to counter-balance that.” Miguel Gonzalez has the starting nod for the Orioles, and the action gets underway tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(The following was originally published at SB*Nation’s Pinstriped Bible) Is CC Sabathia still king of the hill? (Photo: Keith Allison via Flicker) The Yankees entered the 2013 season with a lot of question marks, but so far, the pitching staff has had all the answers. The Yankees currently lead the American League in ERA, and boast what would be one of the highest ERA+ rates in franchise history, so, needless to say, the mound has not been an area of concern. However, the Yankees do have a few first world pitching problems. One of them is named CC Sabathia. CC Sabathia’s Average Velocity, 2007 to YTD 2013 Note: click here for illustrative charts of Sabathia’s pitch characteristics and here for a chart displaying average velocity by month. Source: fangraphs.com The rest of the league isn’t going to take up a collection for Sabathia, whose 3.43 ERA is in line with his career rate, but it’s been hard not to come away from his outings with some minor concerns. The most obvious red flag has been the big lefty’s diminished velocity, which has been down approximately 4mph off recent highs and two ticks from last year’s average speed. Granted, Sabathia’s fastball is still north of 90mph, and plenty of pitchers have been successful at that speed, but, as the gap with his change-up narrows, the left hander may need to compensate in some other way. Although the sample size is admittedly small for such an evaluation, Sabathia’s fastball and change are each rated below average in terms of pitch type linear weights, and the lack of deception could be one of the causes (one of the effects could be a lower swing rate on pitches out of the zone). CC Sabathia: Various Peripheral Pitching Rates, 2007 to YTD 2013 Note: O-swing% is percentage of balls out of the strike zone at which a hitter swings. Except for ERA+, all rates are normalized around the average of the period (1 = average). Source: baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com In terms of earned runs allowed, Sabathia hasn’t suffered too much because of the lost zip on his fastball. However, the peripherals are a little more ominous. In particular, the lefty has been allowing more hits (despite inducing fewer ground balls) and home runs, while striking out fewer, which, in the current climate, is perhaps the most meaningful bellwether. If these trends continue, statistical models suggest the impact will eventually take a toll on Sabathia’s ERA. It’s still early, and Sabathia is only months removed from off season surgery, so, once the weather warms up, the left hander may start lightening up the radar gun once again. If so, the early season worries about his velocity and less than stellar performance will seem rather silly. However, as the only starting pitcher under contract after this season, Sabathia remains a vital component of the Yankees’ present and future. That’s why even irrational concern about the lefty is not completely unfounded, and the following question has resonance: is CC Sabathia still an ace? Even if Sabathia is starting to veer off a bit, it’s important to remember he is coming from a Hall of Fame path. That leaves the big left hander plenty of wiggle room to maintain his effectiveness even in the face of diminished skills. Nonetheless, it isn’t unreasonable to wonder if Sabathia’s days as an elite ace are waning, or even in the past. At 32 years old, it would be more of surprise if he wasn’t forced to make a concession to age, but because he has been so reliable and consistent, it might be hard for Yankee fans to accept this inevitability. However, the real issue is whether Sabathia can accept it. If so, and he adapts accordingly, the questions about Sabathia’s status as an ace just might be answered affirmatively.

Phil Hughes has a handful of brilliant starts, and a handful of abysmal ones. His last shot against the Mariners was an embarrassing dud where he lasted just 0.2 innings and gave up 7 earned runs. According to Chad Jennings of LoHud, the starter looked at video this week and came to the conclusion that he was "getting on the side of the ball", a bad habit he has when he overthrows. I wondered if we could see any difference between his mechanics from his last start and one of his gems from earlier in the year. Below is a side-by-side comparison of his four-seam fastball. Click “View Full Post” to continue.

Man, it’s prematurely hot n humid out there. Summer’s comin’. [Photograph by Fred De Casablanca]

For the first few weeks of the season, the Yankees bullpen was a bit of a mess. Specifically, the non-David Robertson and Mariano Rivera part of the bullpen was a mess. The trio of Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, and Shawn Kelley combined to allow 31 base-runners and 13 runs in 17.1 innings during the first 15 games of the season, so the bridge from starter to Robertson was rather adventurous for a while. It was also a problem given the team’s low-caliber offense. The middle relief issues lasted until mid-to-late-April, when Joba hit the DL and some of his bullpeners improved their performance. Over the last 30 days, the Yankees have the best bullpen ERA (2.49) and second best bullpen FIP (3.35) in the league. Their season ERA is down to 3.32 (3.47 FIP), the fifth best mark the AL. Any conversation about New York’s bullpen starts with Robertson and Rivera, but the other guys have really picked up the slack of late. One of those other guys is a new face who wasn’t around for the early season struggles, right-hander Preston Claiborne. The 25-year-old was called up when Joba was placed on the DL, and he’s since struck out five while walking zero in eight scoreless innings across six appearances. Joe Girardi apparently has enough faith in him that he used him in the seventh inning or later of a two or fewer run game three times in those six appearances, including three of the first four. Talk about being thrown into the fire. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun) “We were impressed with him in Spring Training, and we left thinking he could help us at some point this year, and he’s doing that right now,” said Brian Cashman about Claiborne recently. “You never know how a guy is going to act when he gets here, but he’s the same guy he was in Spring Training, and he’s probably gaining confidence every day.” In addition to adding Claiborne, the Yankees have benefited from Kelley settling down after a nightmarish first few weeks in pinstripes. Over his last ten appearances, the 29-year-old owns a 3.18 ERA (~0.90 FIP) (!)) and has struck out exactly half of the 44 batters he faced. He’s struck out 15 of the last 21 (!) men he’s faced across his last four appearances. Kelley leads all of baseball with a 43.4% strikeout rate (min. 10 IP) after coming into the year with a career 22.6% strikeout rate. He’s throwing his low-80s slider more than ever before, basically half the time these days, which is the likely explanation for all the whiffs. Thanks to all of those strikeouts, Kelley is pitching like the best-case Mark Montgomery scenario right now. We all expected Montgomery to bring his vicious slider to the show and pile up the strikeouts at some point, yet Kelley is the one doing that job right now. He isn’t walking anyone either (just four unintentional walks). Kelley’s homer-prone ways — five homers in 18.1 innings (2.45 HR/9 and 27.8% HR/FB) — will hold him back from being a true high-leverage option, but a reliever who can miss bats like that is a very valuable weapon in the middle innings. The ability to snuff out a rally without having to rely on the defense is huge, we’ve seen that from Robertson in recent years. “I’ve never been on a team that has the expectations of just winning and thinking World Series as their only goal,” said Kelley to Chad Jennings recently. “To have that feeling every night, even if I go in and just get some outs in a win, it feels really good to just help the club win. I’m having a lot of fun on this team … It’s a fun way to win.” With Adam Warren emerging as a long-man extraordinaire, Claiborne and Kelley have stepped up to solidify the middle relief ahead of Robertson and Rivera. Logan needs to settle down and start getting lefties out — they’re hitting .296/.296/.444 (.320 wOBA) against him so far — but otherwise the bullpen has fallen into place. The Yankees play an awful lot of close

The Yankees entered the 2013 season with a lot of question marks, but so far, the pitching staff has had all the answers. The Yankees currently lead the American League in ERA, and boast what would be one of the highest ERA+ rates in franchise history, so, needless to say, the mound has not been an area of concern. However, the Yankees do have a few first world pitching problems. One of them is named CC Sabathia. CC Sabathia’s Average Velocity, 2007 to YTD 2013 Note: click here for illustrative charts of Sabathia’s pitch characteristics and here for a chart displaying average velocity by month.Source: fangraphs.com The rest of the league isn’t going to take up a collection for Sabathia, whose 3.43 ERA is in line with his career rate, but it’s been hard not to come away from his outings with some minor concerns. The most obvious red flag has been the big lefty’s diminished velocity, which has been down approximately 4mph off recent highs and two ticks from last year’s average speed. Granted, Sabathia’s fastball is still north of 90mph, and plenty of pitchers have been successful at that speed, but, as the gap with his change-up narrows, the left hander may need to compensate in some other way. Although the sample size is admittedly small for such an evaluation, Sabathia’s fastball and change are each rated below average in terms of pitch type linear weights, and the lack of deception could be one of the causes (one of the effects could be a lower swing rate on pitches out of the zone). CC Sabathia: Various Peripheral Pitching Rates, 2007 to YTD 2013 Note: O-swing% is percentage of balls out of the strike zone at which a hitter swings. Except for ERA+, all rates are normalized around the average of the period (1 = average). Source: baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com In terms of earned runs allowed, Sabathia hasn’t suffered too much because of the lost zip on his fastball. However, the peripherals are a little more ominous. In particular, the lefty has been allowing more hits (despite inducing fewer ground balls) and home runs, while striking out fewer, which, in the current climate, is perhaps the most meaningful bellwether. If these trends continue, statistical models suggest the impact will eventually take a toll on Sabathia’s ERA. It’s still early, and Sabathia is only months removed from off season surgery, so, once the weather warms up, the left hander may start lightening up the radar gun once again. If so, the early season worries about his velocity and less than stellar performance will seem rather silly. However, as the only starting pitcher under contract after this season, Sabathia remains a vital component of the Yankees’ present and future. That’s why even irrational concern about the lefty is not completely unfounded, and the following question has resonance: is CC Sabathia still an ace? Even if Sabathia is starting to veer off a bit, it’s important to remember he is coming from a Hall of Fame path. That leaves the big left hander plenty of wiggle room to maintain his effectiveness even in the face of diminished skills. Nonetheless, it isn’t unreasonable to wonder if Sabathia’s days as an elite ace are waning, or even in the past. At 32 years old, it would be more of surprise if he wasn’t forced to make a concession to age, but because he has been so reliable and consistent, it might be hard for Yankee fans to accept this inevitability. However, the real issue is whether Sabathia can accept it. If so, and he adapts accordingly, the questions about Sabathia’s status as an ace just might be answered affirmatively.

Museumuseum gives us a huge treat: Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th street by Todd Webb (April 23, 1948)

A short night at the stadium can lead to some long nights at home, and Phil Hughes knew he wasn’t heading for sweet dreams on Wednesday night. Not after a nightmare of a start. “You lay in bed and you think about things,” he said. “What could have gone differently for you, and what you could have done better. It’s tough. It’s tough any way you slice it.” Doubt anyone needs to be reminded of the details, so here are the basics: Hughes got two outs, allowed seven runs and saw his season ERA jump by nearly a run and a half on Wednesday. Tonight will be his first start since the debacle, an opportunity for — as he put it — “officially putting that one out of my memory bank.” Of course, forgetting about that one will require a significant step forward, which will require some sort of correction. “I felt like I was maybe on the side of the ball a little bit, which tends (to cause) my fastball to come back over the middle of the plate,” Hughes said. “My bullpen, I tried to focus on staying behind the baseball and continue to stay aggressive. It wasn’t any drastic changes or anything.” Fact is, Wednesday was an extreme example of what’s made Hughes such an up-and-down pitcher, especially this season. He’s made eight starts this year. In his first two and his last two — the four starts when he struggled — he’s had a combined ERA of 14.17 with seven strikeouts. In his middle four starts, he’s had a combined ERA of 1.93 with 30 strikeouts. He’s been terrific for half the season (punctuated by eight scoreless innings on May 4), and he’s been awful for half of the season (punctuated by Wednesday’s embarrassment). “It’s all fastball command, really,” Hughes said. “The days that I’ve had good command of my fastball, I’ve been able to work everything off that. Those have been the good ones. The bad ones, I’m falling behind and trying to figure something out. When the fastball is there and I’m locating it, I have a good chance to be good that day. If not, I think I need to do a better job of recognizing that earlier and throwing more off-speed pitches to try to counter-balance that.” Locating the fastball requires control, beginning with Hughes’ emotions. He said he has a tendency to get on the side of the ball when he overthrows. Larry Rothschild told Hughes that overthrowing was the problem on Wednesday. “Larry said it reminded him of last year when I threw in Anaheim (5.1 innings, 7 earned),” Hughes said. “Sometimes you just get too much adrenaline going and tend to overthrow the baseball. For me, when I do that, I get on the side and rush out a little bit. It’s something I need to recognize when I’m doing that and try to do a better job of handling my emotions, especially in the first inning, which is tough sometimes. I think that’s when you’re amped up the most. Once I get rolling a little bit, it becomes easier.” Associated Press photo The post Hughes: “It’s all fastball command, really” appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

On Sidney Lumet…over at A Shot in the Dark and Cinephilia and Beyond.

Over at SB Nation’s Longform page check out this profile of Hector Espino–The Unknown Slugger–by our man Eric Nusbaum: There is a joke told by Mexican baseball fans about Espino arriving at the pearly gates of heaven with much less fanfare. St. Peter doesn’t recognize Espino and asks God what he should do. “Don’t be a coward,” God says. “Pitch to him.” Most American baseball fans wouldn’t recognize Héctor Espino either, even though he was the greatest hitter in Mexican history and by many accounts one of the best hitters of all time. Espino played from 1960 to 1984. He had wrists like the barrels of baseball bats and a body like a 5’11, 185-pound vending machine. He also hit somewhere between 755 and 796 professional home runs. The exact total, like much about Espino’s career, is a matter of perspective.